A $300,000 grant to develop faster computers was recently awarded to Brigham Young University along with National Semiconductor, the University of California at Los Angeles and Metalithic Systems Inc.
"We have had some early results that have raised some eyebrows in our research community," said Brad Hutchings, a BYU professor of electrical and computer engineering.The four organizations are researching computer-aided design and implementation of technologies that will make computers work faster, he said.
The new technology is not only fast but also affordable. "In many applications, machines based upon reconfigurable logic can exceed the performance of super-computers at a cost of several personal computers," Hutchings said.
The reconfigurable logic helps the computers work much more efficiently, and BYU is emerging as a leader in this research, he said.